Famous ‘The Scream’ painting targeted by climate activists

By JAN M. OLSEN
Associated press

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norwegian police say two climate activists tried unsuccessfully Friday to cling to Edvard Munch’s 1893 masterpiece “The Scream” in an Oslo museum and No damage was reported to the painting of a waif-like figure appearing to scream.

Police said they were alerted by the National Museum of Norway and have three people under their “control”. A third person filmed the couple trying to cling to the board, Norwegian news agency NTB reported.

The museum said the room where the painting under glass is displayed “has been emptied of the public and closed” and will reopen as soon as possible. The rest of the museum remained open.

Police said there was glue residue on the glass backing.

Video of the incident showed museum guards holding two activists, one of them shouting “I’m screaming for the people who are dying”. Another shouted ‘I scream when lawmakers ignore science’ as someone shielded ‘The Scream’.

Environmental activists from the Norwegian organization ‘Stop oljeletinga’ – Norwegian for Stop Oil Exploration – were behind the stunt, saying they “wanted to pressure lawmakers to stop oil exploration”. Norway is a major offshore oil and gas producer.

It was the latest episode in which climate activists have targeted famous paintings in European museums.

“We’re campaigning against ‘Scream’ because it might be Norway’s most famous painting,” Astrid Rem, spokeswoman for the Norwegian band, told The Associated Press. “There have been many similar actions across Europe. They have achieved something that no other action has achieved: to obtain extremely important coverage and press.

Two Belgian activists who targeted Johannes Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ in a Dutch museum in October have been sentenced to two months in prison. The painting was undamaged and was put back on its wall a day later.

Earlier this month climate protesters threw mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting in a German museum and a similar protest took place in London where protesters threw soup on Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” at the National Gallery. In these two cases, the paintings were not damaged either.

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